Historical Fiction Reading Response

Mina’s Historical Fiction Reading Response!

In the book A Diamond In The Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

My story was about a Japanese boy named Tetsu who has to go to an internment camp with his family. This is about history after Pearl Harbor and how badly the Japanese were treated. It shows all these adventures, not always good Tetsu takes. Including, making a baseball field and crying for his sister not to be dead. Yes, it was a very long book. I did not always like it. I didn’t enjoy the layout of the story a lot, it had a chapter that was about one page about something boring then another chapter, then another. The author included lots of unimportant information. Which made the story boring. But, I did enjoy some parts of the story which made me very excited or anxious because I wanted to know what would happen because I knew the main character very well, the author did do a very good job of getting me interested or care about the character.  

The big idea of the story was hope and the theme was you have to hope to succeed. I think this because Tetsu had to hope he would have a  baseball field, there might of been a chance he would get to play on a baseball field if he hoped. He did hope in fact, and he succeeded. Hope encourages you to keep on trying. It helps you to not give up. To stay positive. That is how Tetsu did end up with a baseball field to play on. It really shows how much he hoped when he kept on helping to make the field. I think he did the best and definitely the most. My text evidence was, ‘I was clearing stones from center field, and placing them in long rows along the first baseline to keep dust down’. This shows that Tetsu is helping because he hopes that the baseball field will successfully work. The amount of work Tetsu put into this shows how much he hoped.

The non-fiction resources I used helped me understand my story a lot. Both, of my resources helped me a lot to understand the book. It had very important information in order for me to understand what was happening in the book. I learned about the sad, but true and historical event, Pearl Harbor. It was when the Japanese bombed America. After Pearl Harbor, America took revenge on Japanese people by putting them in internment camps even though they really were innocent. This connected to my story because my book was about a Japanese boy, Tetsu and his family going to an internment camp and about his life there. If I didn’t read these non-fiction resources I would not know why Tetsu was leaving his home in California and what in the world was happening, also why they were treated so harshly.  

In the story, I think that the “gang”, a group of naughty boys who do bad things have the power. I think this because they can do whatever they want without anyone telling them to stop. Even if someone tells them to stop they won’t listen because they know that the people can’t do anything about it if the boys still do naughty things. Also the boys have more power because they know that the soldiers don’t even care if they do naughty stuff, so they just do it. The boys know that there are no consequences to doing those bad things. My text evidence is,“You think they care”? This is one of the boys in the gang, George talking to Tetsu when Tetsu asked what will the soldiers do if they see us. You see, the boys are smart enough to know that the soldiers really do not care what they do exactly but also very naughty. That gives the boys a lot of power just knowing that for sure. Another thing that gives the boys power is that no one dares to tell the soldiers. The people do tell them to not do that but they just don’t want to get into any problems with the soldiers.

I also think that George, one of the boys in the camp has the power because he’s showing Tetsu around the camp more and he knows everything. George is nice to Tetsu to do that. George really just updates Tetsu on everything that’s happening or happened.“George knew everything that happened. I didn’t know how he knew, but he did”. This is Tetsu’s thinking when George was talking to him. This proves that George really does know everything going on and that’s what Tetsu also thinks. Therefore, George has the power to share everything he knows and lead Tetsu through what’s going on. Tetsu really trusts George or likes George because he’ll believe everything George says as well. All of this does not just show that George has the power, but George is a good friend since he cares about Tetsu to take his time to share all the things that is happening.

The one person’s voice that we heard was Tetsu, a Japanese boy. He was the main character and the whole entire story was written from his perspective.  My text evidence is, “I could not think about the fisherman who saved her’’, this is Tetsu thinking about this little girl who went into the canal and got terribly injured because his little sister went into the canal like she did and he hopes his sister his not hurt like that little girl was. This proves my point because this shows some of Tetsu’s thinking. We don’t know what his mother thought of this, we don’t know what his friends think of this. The people that don’t have a voice in this story is really just everyone except Tetsu. It only shows Tetsu’s thoughts of the events that is happening, no one else. To be more specific, we don’t hear Tetsu’s family, friends or even the soldiers guarding the camp. We didn’t even get to hear the soldiers speak. The author probably did this to show how badly the Japanese got treated and just wanted to focus on them. Therefore, we don’t know how the others feel.

The relationship that probably changed the most was Kimi, Tetsu’s little sister and Tetsu’s relationship because of the changes they had to go through together. They had to stick together through the hard and scary life they were in no matter what, especially when Tetsu and Kimi had an argument. After that disagreement Kimi ran away and got hurt. But, you could tell Tetsu felt so bad and loved her so much that he went to find her in the danger. Also, it sure did teach Tetsu a lesson to love his sister and not fight with her. Going to the internment camp as Japanese kids did change Tetsu and his sister’s relationship with each other because it taught them to care about each other more. That taught them to be more responsible as well. The internment camp actually improved their relationship with each other even more. It made them feel that they had to be more careful with each other and even more kind. My text evidence is, “I made a fishpond outside our barrack for Kimi,” this is Tetsu’s thoughts from the book. This proves my point because this is when Tetsu was in the internment camp. It’s so kind how Tetsu would take so much effort and time to do this for his little sister. Tetsu definitely would not of did this before in California where he use to live, he would not even have to. Tetsu loves his sister a lot.

My big take away from this story was finding out how badly the Japanese people got treated in the internment camps. I think this was the most important part of this story and the author tried to show this the most. This was very surprising to me because being put into one of those Japanese kid’s shoes is very scary. Just knowing how Tetsu feels is very heart breaking. It sure is very unfair for those since they were treated terribly. For example, they had bathrooms with no separators. This shows they really have no privacy. Another example is that they didn’t have beds already for them! Tetsu’s family made it out of straw. Some text evidence I have is: “-and hung a sheet for privacy to make a sleeping area”, this shows how they had a very limited amount of resources, I mean, they had paper for the walls. It wasn’t a very nice house to stay in. In fact, it was one tiny place that was a twenty-by-twenty-four-foot room. If I was Tesu or any of the people in one of those internment camps I would not feel very safe at all. I learned that life really isn’t fair, I mean Tetsu had to live a hard life even though he really had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor which is why the Japanese were put into internment camps. There’s a quote, ‘life isn’t fair’, which I understood a lot better after reading this book. This already has applied in my life many times. Especially with my sisters. It probably will happen again a lot.